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Show HN: Doomscroll the Goverment's UFO Files as One Gigantic Microfilm

23 points by keepamovin

by keepamovin

0 subcomment

If you don't remember microfilm - it's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform
It's still (I think) used in libraries for viewing newspapers and other things. I built a "Windows File Explorer" type viewer for the May 8th released files that are hosted on WAR.GOV but felt a single giant "timeline" was interesting and new enough to do one more.
Plus I think the problem of making the streaming of thumbs/full-size efficient and good UX for scrubbing, random seeking, and playback of documents and videos in one giant "reel" is interesting. Theoretically, it's a simple model: static files, fronted by CloudFlare, assisted by local browser cache and the goal is playback that uses bandwidth optimally.
Perceptually, I think it's a great way to "grok" a large amount of information. Your eye can notice things in the scan and you can zero-in manually to seek. It supports cursoring, and YouTube controls (numbered jumps 0 - 9 and j,k,l plus . and , for seeks and toggling playback) - as well as a bunch of touch gestures to scrub.

by habitit

1 subcomments

Wow there are gonna be a lot of people digging into this haha. I think it has so much potential like to add all other types of de-classified file sections as well. Maybe even a tying system to see like which files link to other files to draw things out in higher perspectives. Regardless its a cool one, one day soon enough well know the truth :) .

by archleaf

1 subcomments

We should be able to find something that was missed!
Did you let any LLMs search this?

by Mechse

2 subcomments

Just spent 30+ minutes scrolling through old documents without noticing :D Great work

by abstract257

1 subcomments

by datagrasp-grcs

0 subcomment

by bharatj97

0 subcomment